Wauwatosa Mayor Visits O'Neill, Has Ties To First O'Neill Mayor

Mayor Get-together - The current mayor of Wauwatosa, Dennis R. McBride (right) makes a stop at O'Neill and visits with the current mayor of O'Neill, Scott Menish (left). McBride was first elected in 2020 and Menish was elected in 2018.

Dennis R. McBride, the current mayor of Wauwatosa in Wisconsin, visited O'Neill recently. He passed through the small town while traveling, and decided to make a stop. 

McBride had always wanted to visit O'Neill for one simple reason; his great-great-uncle, John C. McBride, was O'Neill's very first mayor. 

John McBride first arrived in O'Neill in May of 1877, bringing along with him the skills he had learned along the way. His occupation at the time was a carpenter, allowing him to meet and befriend many people. By this time, he had a wife, Johannah, and three kids.

In 1889, O'Neill decided to incorporate a mayor-council government system. It's not a huge surprise that McBride was elected as mayor that same year, considering his many acquaintances and his prior experience in a governmental system. He was 41 years old when he was elected. In 1881 alone, the small town of O'Neill grew from a meager 57 residents to 1,226! McBride served as mayor up until April of 1891, when  he would later move to Salt Lake City in Utah where he would pass away in 1925.

Dennis McBride is following in the footsteps of his great-great-uncle and has taken on the leadership role of mayor, and saw visiting O'Neill as a perfect way to honor his great ancestor. He even got the opportunity to visit with O'Neill's current mayor, Scott Menish.

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